IEEE Computer Society Newsfeed

To be able to construct a quantum computer requires hundreds of thousands of qubits, which is a challenge. Researchers from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville are working on quadripartite cluster entanglement, which they say could be used in a quantum computer. They used an optical frequency comb to create and excite qubits, creating a small quantum register. They have designed a cluster entangled state for quantum computing, but these sorts of quantum computers are limited in the type of processing they are able to do. The researchers say these can be used for experiments that need cluster states. Next, the researchers need to entangle those already-entangled qubits into a larger register and increase the number of entangled qubits that can be used in quantum processing. The full research results have been published in Physical Review Letters. (PhysOrg.com)(Matthew Pysher et al., “Parallel Generation of Quadripartite Cluster Entanglement in the Optical Frequency Comb,” Physical Review Letters (2011).)

The US Department of Homeland Security told the US Congress it fears attackers could use a worm similar to Stuxnet against critical infrastructures. The sophisticated worm was uncovered about a year ago and had been specifically developed to attack centrifuges in Iran’s nuclear program. Because a great deal of the information about Stuxnet is publically available, DHS officials are concerned that attackers could easily use the information against the US. (Wired)(Copy of Testimony at Wired)(Telegraph)

Cornell University researchers have developed software that can detect fake consumer reviews and have tested the system by applying it to reviews of Chicago hotels. They trained their software, then used it to determine whether a review was truthful or manufactured. The researchers claim the software had a 90 percent accuracy rate while humans can detect false reviews only 50 percent of the time. The detection software is based on software used to detect plagiarism and has been developed to detect the type of language people use when writing a deceptive review. The researchers say that those writing fake reviews tend to use more verbs and focus on family and activities in their reviews. The researchers plan to next apply the technology to online restaurant and product reviews. (SlashDot)(CNET)(“Finding Deceptive Opinion Spam by Any Stretch of the Imagination,” Ott et al., Cornell University)

A common feature in cathedrals constructed during the Renaissance are whispering galleries, circular chambers architects designed to amplify and direct sound such that someone standing in a specific spot could hear a whisper from across the room. University of Pennsylvania researchers have applied the concept to the construction of nanowires to decrease the emission lifetime by eliminating the typical cooling period between a system’s excited and ground states. The wires have a cadmium sulfide core and are wrapped with a layer of silicon dioxide, then an outer silver layer. They curved the metal surface around the wire to make a nanoscale plasmonic cavity that is based on this whispering gallery effect. The emission lifetime is based on precisely controlling the high intensity electromagnetic fields inside the cadmium sulfide core, which ultimately promises to significantly increase a device’s modulation. The wires could be used in nanophotonic devices or plasmonic computers. The full research results were published in the journal Nature Materials. (University of Pennsylvania)(Nature Materials)

University of Pennsylvania researchers have helped develop a nanotech device that combines carbon nanotube transistors with olfactory receptor proteins, the cells in the nose that ultimately detect odors. They used receptors from mice in their work and developed an interface that converts the chemical signals into electrical signals. To test the concept, the researchers constructed a chemical sensor that continuously monitors the concentration of a molecule. The technology could potentially be used in other biological research applications. (PhysOrg.com)(University of Pennsylvania)(ACS Nano)

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